ARLINGTON, VA —Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) Tuesday prodded hundreds of people here for the National Cleanup Workshop to urge their congressional representatives to avoid a federal government shutdown but stopped short of predicting a stopgap agreement before fiscal 2023 ends Sept. 30.
“Reach out to your member of congress,” said Fleischmann, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee’s energy and water development subcommittee. Tell the lawmaker “’Please, we do not want to have a government shutdown’,” said Fleischmann.
“I sincerely hope so,” Fleischmann said when asked by Exchange Monitor if he expects Congress to avoid a shutdown.
Another House Appropriations member, Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), whose district includes the Hanford Site in Washington state, struck a similar tone when he addressed the conference Wednesday.
“‘Confident’ might not be the right word,” Newhouse said following a brief speech. “I’m hopeful” and a lot of people are working to avoid a shutdown, Newhouse said. A shutdown benefits no one, he added.
“I have lived through some government shutdowns,” Fleischmann said. During one early shutdown, Fleischmann, whose district includes the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, recalled seeing a popular restaurant saying everyone was welcomed to eat there—except members of Congress.
While Fleischmann would not make a prediction, a couple of weapons-complex government watchers attending the DOE National Cleanup Workshop, hosted here by Energy Communities Alliance, said they expect a continuing budget resolution will be reached by Sept. 30 and will likely extend into January.
Fleischmann touted the spending bill drafted by his subcommittee and passed by the full House Appropriations Committee in June, which includes $8.3-billion for the Office of Environmental Management.
That proposal reflected a 3% increase when some other programs were being deeply cut, thanks to “a pretty good chairman,” the lawmaker said. He hopes something very similar will end up as part of the final fiscal 2024 spending plan.
